Hi, is canon EOS rebel t5 body good enough for professional newborn, maternity, and child photography? I was told that I have to get a 50mm 1.8 lense, and other lenses for maternity, however I'm just not sure if the camera body itself can produce professional quality results? Like my pictures are too big and just not look professional like other newborn photography pictures. Is it the lense that I need to change, or the whole camera and lense combined? Can I just get a different lense and still keep the rebel t5?

I would think that portrait photography is going to be dependent on lenses way more than body. The Canon 50mm f/1.4, my favorite the f/1.2 85mm (no longer have. ), the 85mm f/1.8 USM, 70-200mm f/2.7 II is awesome.

Not sure why, but call me JJ.I used to hate math but then I realised decimals have a point.. ::Flickr::::Gear::

Thanks. I figured the lense was mostly important in portrait photography. I just read somewhere that its not good for professional portraiture (which I bought 1 year ago but only started using now. So even if I wanted there's no way I can return or exchange it).

Oksana Gereaue wrote in post #18465620Thanks. I figured the lense was mostly important in portrait photography. I just read somewhere that its not good for professional portraiture (which I bought 1 year ago but only started using now. So even if I wanted there's no way I can return or exchange it).

I know you are new so I'll be gentle... It's "lens"... no "e"... plural is "lenses"...

This will help you to fit in more quickly. It takes a while to learn the jargon.

Just my opinion, but technically, a Rebel should be fine for portrait photography. They are excellent cameras and deliver high image quality.

But a Rebel is not considered pro equipment, and therefore might not present you the best way to the customer. Most pros have multiple full frame cameras, and that implies a commitment to their trade. If this does not matter to you, and if it does not matter to your customers, then carry on.

As for lenses, pick what works for your style of photography. Any focal length can be used for portrait photography, but you need to pick the ones that give the look you want.

Regardless of body and lens, what matters the most is how you use your equipment.

Yes lighting I already learned the hard way with post production. Took me 1 hour to edit 1 photo because of bad/inconsistent lighting. On top of that I was shooting in auto mode instead of manual. ߘ I guess all hatchlings start off pretty similar.԰ߐ

Your camera body is fine. A 10 year old camera body would be fine. Makes no difference at all. The lens can matter a little bit, in terms of producing certain looks you may wish to have. But even then, they're not all that critical either. You could do great newborn with an 18-55 kit lens. The key to newborn photography is lighting, atmosphere and processing. All the professional' stuff you see that people seem to be going for these days are completely unnatural looking (babies by themselves, naked, asleep, not cold, on some crazy fur blanket or dressed in some adult-esque constume, asleep, not cold, not fussing, in a basket in a field; if you really think about it, its ridiculous, but, it's what people want to see, thus it works); and these unnatural things are not popular and look like they do because of a specific sensor size or camera body, nor even the fancier fast fixed-focal length lenses (primes) with shallow depth of field and stuff. 90%+ or more is virtually all done with processing such as presets in lightroom, total environment swap outs, total sky swap outs, etc. The other 10% are doing it with lighting and props and some natural light and props and a lot of patience.

You have the tools. You just need to add more tools if you want to get on the bandwagon, by adding processing and props. Look at the trends, follow them, or create your own. But it will come down to the processing to make the difference. Everyone can take a baby, dress them however, put them in a basket or on a bench, in a field, or on some bear-skin or sheep-skin rug thing and snap a photo of them sleeping. The key is to do it when they're not fussing, not cranky, not cold, recently fed, not in a weird environment, and not being popped with high power strobes right on top of them (they startle them and they get hit with heat each time so its weird and can upset them), and simply get the rough idea of the portrait captured, then process it to be whatever you want it to be. Again, pull up the amazing angelic surreal dreamy newborn photos and take a look. 90% of it is processed to be that, if you saw the original, you'd be shocked.

Find out what you want to produce, professionally. Newborn photography is harder than people think, because newborns do not cooperate at all and you have to do it around their schedule, or you get fussy upset crying photos, poop every where, constantly peeing, and frustrated parents that are done with trying to do it for the 2nd or 3rd hour at their house, or in some studio. But you can do it if you work around them, find their routine, work into it, help the parents to understand that it doesn't happen on their schedule, and find out what they want the images to look like. Some want the social-media dreamy stuff (the unnatural looking stuff). Some just want something nicer than a cellphone snap. But a lot of it is processing on the dreamy side. For just good formals, you can get away with just some basic around the house stuff, good lighting, and some patience. But again, processing is mostly the big thing missing from what you're trying to do, just looking at your photos. Shallow depth of field and a fur rug or a tutu doesn't instantly create the dreamy stuff, as you well have found out. That's where processing takes the raw material and makes dreamy stuff from it.

Your equipment is fine and good for what you want to do.You just need a new tool and skillset in processing and some more experience.

Summary:

1) Gear is fine.2) Controlled lighting is superior and cleaner.3) Don't shoot auto. Control your camera. Don't just shoot auto and hope for something. This requires you really learn the exposure triangle.4) Processing education. Pick a software suite (like Lightroom/Photoshop, or other) and start going through tutorials on how to do a lot of it. There are online classes. Subtle processing is much more difficult and effective, rather than very obvious processing that looks really hackish. But processing is the major difference here, along with experience. Not the camera/lens!

Thanks. Yes I know processing is a huge one. However, I had bad lighting/jpeg format, and inconsistent editing on these photos, oh and it was on auto-mode instead of manual. So I really had no idea what I was doing. These were my first 2 babies I ever shot with a professional camera. I have learned soo much from these photos, and from the advice from fellow photographers like yourself. I didn't even know what aperature was or the difference from a 35mm to a 50mm. After these photos, I took the time to self educate myself. I find this site VERY HELPFUL, unlike searching on google or trying to ask other established newborn photographers for little advice here and there, and all they do is try to sell you their workshops for $1,200. I appreciate the help. Hopefully, one day I can give back to people that helped me.

Oksana Gereaue wrote in post #18465843Do you attack all hatchlings the same?

I'm sorry it came across as an attack. It wasn't intended as such.

I was trying to help you learn the jargon. When you spell lens "lense", it sort of singles you out as new to photography. If you used it in, say, an ad, or something like that, it would be detrimental to your presentation.

I was actually trying to be constructive. I do apologize for failing to communicate my intentions clearly.

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